“I think it ought to be deeply embarrassing to any developed society that 300 million people are sitting there on Monday, and they don’t know what their tax rates are going to be on Tuesday,” Steyn said. “That’s the mark of shame.”

“You just mentioned Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell negotiated this thing,” Steyn said. “Mitch McConnell apparently spent all night in a room with Joe Biden, which very few would have the stomach for. But he decided to do it, and basically these two guys cooked up a deal for 300 million citizens, and then as if it’s some rinky-dink little Soviet people’s assembly, the legislature rubber stamps it.”

“The Republicans — whether consciously or not — [made] a decision in the summer, basically taking their cue from the Romney campaign, that this was a ‘don’t frighten the horses’ election. Mitt didn’t want to talk about the big stuff. He just didn’t want to frighten soccer moms in southern Ohio. The Republican Party didn’t have a big discussion on the principle of this thing, which is when you’re spending $3.5 trillion a year, and you’re only raising $2 trillion — you can’t do that. That’s a recipe for total societal collapse.”